And no one had heard then of Patagonian toothfish, climate change, marine junk or Japanese whale-food science.
While the explorer's great-great-great-granddaughter, Philippa Ross, can rattle off Sir James' achievements chapter and verse, her first real awareness of him was when she was a young girl and had to attend some tiresome "do" at the British Post Office. That occasion in 1972 was to celebrate the issue of a stamp commemorating her esteemed ancestor.
"I was 10," she laughs.
It was "boring", however her real interest in Sir James and the Ross Sea began in Waipu, where she now lives.
Philippa speaks at conferences and belongs to conservation groups battling to have the Ross Sea gain world reserve status- full protection forever.
She finds it a little ironic, thrilling and something of a responsibility that her ancestor's voyage of discovery was the first in a long line of potentially harmful incursions into that pristine world.
Next February she will be a guest on a voyage to Antarctica to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the discovery of the Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf.
She is taking her trip, with Heritage Expeditions on a 35-day voyage called In the Wake of Ross, Scott and Amundsen, both as a conservationist and in homage to her heritage.
There will be descendants of those other great explorers aboard and, from the Ross family, also Philippa's father (hopefully) and uncle who live in the UK.
When she heard about Heritage Expeditions' voyage, she wasn't sure how she would fund a berth aboard it, but she was determined to go. She contacted biologist and Heritage Expeditions founder and boss, Rodney Russ.
"I would like to go on that trip," she told him. "Are there any jobs cleaning toilets? I'd be happy to sleep in a cupboard."
He asked her to put together a marketing proposal, and offered her a free passage.
In London, her Uncle James signed up to go, but her father is unable to afford it at this stage.
"I'm determined he's going, though," Philippa says. She's putting all her skills to work to achieve that - speaking events, conferences, a blog and fundraising site called pole2pole. But getting her old dad to the Antarctic is only part of it. Raising awareness of that environment and the problems it faces is everything.
She wants to see New Zealanders, in particular, take a strong position on saving the Ross Sea eco-system, a region once called the Ross Dependency, for which New Zealand was responsible.
"In my eyes the New Zealand Government aren't fulfilling their obligation. We need to be pulling out all the stops."
BACK TO the film The Last Ocean, which was seven years in the making and premiered at the Auckland Film Festival in 2013, where Philippa gave a speech before its screened.
It was made under the umbrella of the Last Ocean Trust and filmed by conservation photographer John Weller and scientist David Ainley.
Last year Philippa's uncle in London hired facilities at the prestigious National Geographic Centre and gave one film showing. In the audience were Philippa's father, her siblings and other relations.
"It was really nice because it made the connection for them, it joined up all the dots," she says.
Those dots have long been joined up for her, and they make an interesting outline of other connections, too.
In 1818 her ancestor, then just a teenager who had joined the navy at 12 years old, accompanied his uncle Sir John Ross, later Admiral, on his first Arctic voyage in search of Canada's Northwest Passage.
In 1831, during one of four Arctic explorations, Ross, aged 31, discovered North Magnetic Pole, true north.
In 1839 he took command of the two voyage, three year search for the Magnetic South Pole.
In his time Ross was recognised as a brilliant navigator and a leader in magnetic technology. His charts and logs became a template for future explorers.
Philippa is a psychologist, writer, marketer and well-being mentor (she calls herself an "enthusiologist"), whose book about mastering the game of life, Life's a Load of Balls, is almost finished. "It's a fun way to get people to see how science is linked to spirituality," she says.
She also steers her way through life by magnetism, she says.
"The connection with Sir James clicked with me because my own business is helping people find their 'true north'. "For me, it's all about finding the true balance where people and the Earth can sustain each other.
"I had an ah-ha moment. I've never been particularly a 'greenie', but there are more people becoming interested in that concept. I believe Sir James Ross helped lead me to that."
She doesn't go so far as to suggest he also helped lead her to New Zealand, where she's lived for 11 years.
He probably never sailed this way himself, his expeditions to Antarctica leaving from Tasmania.
But, she's here, living in the warm north, peering toward the cold south, accidentally meeting people who work on films about it, becoming increasingly concerned and vocal about the international politicking and fish-mongering that has reduced a unique, precious ecology to a free-for-all.
"I think it's bizarre I've ended up in New Zealand, in the closest country to the Ross Sea."
